Human Resource Management Graduate Certificate

Earn a graduate certificate in human resource management and learn the leadership skills needed to effectively manage a workforce from an organizational perspective as well as the practical skills to oversee the day-to-day responsibilities of an HR department.

Become an HR professional who understands how to provide strategic counsel and practical support to employees and management to help drive performance.

See Yourself Succeed with a Human Resource Management Graduate Certificate

Your human resources management graduate certificate classes will expand your understanding of how motivation, communication and leadership can help improve performance and organizational efficiencies. You'll see the key role of human resources management in recruiting, hiring, training and career development of employees to affect organizational change. You'll become familiar with current topics in compensation, benefits, collective bargaining and labor relations, with specific applications in the workplace. And you'll learn how to create an environment that cultivates employee and organizational productivity and success.

As a private, nonprofit university, SNHU has one mission - to help you see yourself succeed. The benefits of earning a graduate certificate in human resource management at SNHU include:

Supportive community. Join the SNHU campus community of students who are closely connected with faculty and staff dedicated to your success.

Affordability. SNHU is one of the most affordable private, nonprofit universities in New Hampshire, and students who qualify could receive up to $20,000 in grants and scholarships. (This scholarship amount is only for students who do not need a visa to study in the U.S.)

Accessible faculty. Learn from highly credentialed faculty who are experts in their fields and interact with you in the classroom, dining hall, fitness center and the stands.

Efficiency and flexibility. Complete your certificate at your own pace, over five 10-week terms per year.

Minimal requirements. No GRE or GMAT required for admission.

Opportunity. Tap into our nationwide network of alumni and strong connections with employers for internship and career opportunities.

​Internships & Outcomes

Employment opportunities for human resources managers, labor relations managers and others in the human resources management field are expected to grow by 21 percent in the decade prior to 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Employment legislation and rising healthcare costs may increase the demand for human resources management professionals who can help organizations meet regulations and contain benefits costs. A contracting economy may decrease demand, yet HR professionals with skills in improving organizational performance and those with a graduate certificate in human resources may be best positioned for available job opportunities in the HR field.

This course is a study of individuals and groups and their interaction. Students examine theories of motivation, communication, leadership, power and change with practical relation to contemporary issues. They also study organizations for key design variables and reward systems aimed at improved performance and organizational efficiency through employee motivational programs, participative management and cooperative decision making.

OL
600
Strategic Human Resource Management

This course emphasizes the strategic role of the human resource manager in performing functions of recruitment, hiring, training, career development and other contemporary processes within the organizational setting. It serves as an introduction to the areas of compensation, collective bargaining, affirmative action and other regulatory procedures and requirements as they relate to contemporary applications in organizations.

OL
663
Leading Change

This course focuses on transforming organizations by introducing Kotter's eight processes by which leaders effect change. Because organizations, leaders, and employees differ, various techniques and strategies are examined. The course integrates Kotter's processes for leading change, organizational development and transformation theory and practice, and analysis of an organization which has effected systematic change. The use of work teams as a key change factor will have special emphasis.

Select two of the following:

OL
610
Employee and Labor Relations

This is a study of public and private labor relations and methods of dispute resolution that stresses labor agreement administration, grievance procedures and arbitration. It includes the examination of the history of union-management relations, bargaining and negotiation strategies. The limitations of the use of power also are studied.

OL
620
Total Rewards

This course examines the compensation and benefits functions within the organizational structure and ways they impact the management function. Topics include job analysis, surveys, wage scales, incentives, benefits, HRIS systems and pay delivery administration. Students design a compensation and benefits program as a course outcome.

OL
665
Leading/Managing Not-For-Profit Orgs

This course is a study of planning, budgeting, control and other management activities in the context of the not-for-profit institution.

OL
675
Leadership and Ethics

Leadership and Ethics is a course that focuses on the ways current and emerging leaders assess the values that influence their actions. The course draws on the rich tradition of great thinkers as well as the extensive body of leadership literature to examine the critical role ethics plays in leadership. The course, conducted in seminar format, is a process course. It is only through thoughtful reading, reflections, writing, and discussion that students are able to recognize and shape the qualities they see valuable for their own leadership roles, both personally and professionally.

Tuition rates for Southern New Hampshire University's graduate degree programs are among the lowest in the nation. We offer a 25 percent tuition discount for U.S. service members, both full and part time, and the spouses of those on active duty.